Brandon D’Silva – Virtual Guest

Virtual Guest

ABOUT: Passionate about the personal connection between people and events and with a background in event management, design and photography. After trying VR at a clients office Brandon decided he was done with flat-screen video: “Ever since then I knew this is the platform that will help me express my vision.”

What is your company’s core expertise?

– Our core expertise is event coverage. Our team has a lot of experience working in the field from running fashion and dance music events to wedding photography.

What is it like working with you guys? Take me through the process!

– We’re a small team. We each have over a decade of experience working in the creative and hospitality industry. I think collaboration is particularly important in VR because it has the power to trigger a greater emotional response in the viewer compared to standard video. Whether it be a wedding or music video immersion, we work on a project together with our customers and educate them on ‘VR production etiquette’ along the way.

Can your company handle campaign volume production?

– For sure.

How would you describe your company culture?

– We’re about doing things that matter to us. We have a genuine interest in helping ethical businesses and people in re-living moments of the past that they can view in the present.

Can you tell me something you’ve done that you are extra proud of?

– Our first 360° video was captured last year. The event was TEDxPerth at the Perth Concert Hall. We got the green light less than 24 hours from the event and the only available seating was at the back next to the AV mixing deck. You couldn’t really see much of the stage in the video so we decided to integrate a close up shot from a standard video camera over the stage. It’s not our best work but I think it was a good proof of concept on how standard video can be integrated into 360° environments.

What area, geographically speaking, are you available to work in?

– We’re based in Perth, Western Australia and are more than happy to take on overseas projects. We want help individuals, developers and organisations produce 360° VR content globally. (Send us a message if you’re interested to discuss!).

Do you offer revisions of completed work?

– Yes.

Money is a big issue. What can you do for a small company with limited resouces?

– Our pricing is flexible but we see ourselves as premium-grade content creators. We have a range of 360° video and image production equipment to cater for small events to professional 360° Stereoscopic live broadcasts with spatial audio. I would recommend 360° 2D visuals and stereo.

I own a gym and would like to promote it. What sort of VR experience would you suggest for me? Money is not an issue. Go crazy.

– An interactive virtual tour that includes a series of exercise training videos when you ‘walk’ past and select different pieces of equipment. Different workouts are triggered based on what you select in the user interface. Your virtual ’gym guides’ would be your in-house personal trainers, all captured within your gym of course.

I’ve been living in an alley behind Dunkin’ Donuts the last few years and just got back to work at the marketing department, can you explain to me why I should invest in a VR marketing campaign?

– VR & 360° productions have a lot of benefits over standard videos and images. By positioning the user inside the content, you’re able to accurately simulate the size and location of an area relative to it’s environment from a first person perspective. People in videos are talking directly to the viewer placed within the video, so the dialogue is adjusted to reflect this. It allows for an intimate audio and visual experience that standard media on flat-screens can’t achieve.

If you were to speculate freely, what sort of marketing experiences will future VR tech allow for?

– Even in VR, media marketing is still one-way; the user is still the receiver of information. I think in the future it will be two-way communication where the user is interacting and shaping their own marketing experience. It’s difficult to explain but it makes perfect sense in my mind.

VR is a no doubt powerful tool that and the industry is young. What are the risks and pitfalls with VR marketing?

– I think there are people out there that see 360° content as a ‘fad-format.’ We’ve invested heavily into professional video & image production solutions and a premium user experience is not cheap. I think for VR marketing to be both cost and outcome effective it needs to be planned correctly and progress over stages rather than one-off productions.

Pick a brand and product that you like and tell me what sort of campaign you would create, given total freedom.

– I’d love to do something with a sports brand like Nike. I’d create a VR campaign focusing on their segment of basketball goods and capture a series of events in VR and provide the content globally live or pre-recorded. Nike have a 3 v 3 basketball tournament in LA, something like this would be cool.

How big can VR marketing get and what will it take for it to get there?

– I think it’s a case of technological determinism. It will change how people think and interact. Radio and television did this. Like everything, all it will take is time.

How would you define a successful VR marketing experience?

– The user should either never want to take the headset off because they love it so much or have the temptation to remove it the moment they get that first hit of emotional discomfort. Fear and love are the only true emotions and a successful VR marketing experience needs to play on this see-saw.

What is it about VR that gets you excited?

– VR has the power to transport people outside of their physical environment and take them on an immersive, personal journey – whatever the reason. I think that’s pretty damn special.

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